


Out of the Rain

by arielmagicesi



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7186547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielmagicesi/pseuds/arielmagicesi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin's spent all day in the rain doing something mysterious. Arthur's not going to let him soak to death. Because good servants are hard to come by, obviously. Not because he cares about Merlin or anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of the Rain

It was pouring buckets of rain. All Arthur wanted to do was curl up in bed and listen to it streaming down on the stone roof, but he had what seemed like endless meetings, not to mention training with the knights. Although, training had been postponed after Gwaine had taken one step outside and shouted, “Nope!” and when the others made fun of him, he shoved them into the freezing cold torrent until they all agreed that training could wait until tomorrow.  
Finally, Arthur was in his room, the door closed, knees tucked under him on the window seat. The window was open, letting him hear the soothing staccato of the raindrops, whose furious rush to the earth tapped out a melody to loosen all the knots of his headache. He loved being king, but there were days when it was exhausting. Especially when he inexplicably hadn’t seen Merlin all day. Hearing Merlin’s mindless chatter was a comfort. And if Merlin were here, he could have gone down to the kitchens and gotten Arthur some tea, and maybe lit a fire, and fetch him a blanket. Now that he thought of it, sitting by the window listening to the rain was not enjoyable in the least, and it was all Merlin’s fault for being wherever the hell he was.  
Half an hour or so later, the door to Arthur’s chambers creaked open, and he jumped up.  
“Sorry I’m late-”  
“Where have you been? I’ve had to go all day without- Merlin, what’s happened to you?”  
Merlin was soaked from head to toe, pale white, and absolutely shivering. He was dripping a veritable ocean onto the floor.  
“I’ve b-been out all day,” he said. “Uhh… collecting herbs for Gaius.”  
“Collecting herbs for Gaius? And it took you all day?”  
“S-sorry, sire-”  
“No, Merlin, I’m just saying, how stupid do you have to be to go out in this pouring rain all day? You might have gotten yourself killed- you’ve probably got a cold now! Do you even care about your own health? Honestly!”  
Merlin looked up, and he looked like such a pitiable mess that Arthur rolled his eyes. “All right, well, if you’re not going to take care of yourself, I will. I’m not letting you die of a cold just because you’re such an idiot.”  
He went to his closet to look for some warm clothes for Merlin to change into.  
“You know, Arthur, I do a l-lot more for you than you realize,” Merlin said. “I didn’t go out in the r-rain just to piss you off.”  
“Right. Well, if you die and I have to find myself a new servant, it’ll piss me off even more. Come on, change out of those wet clothes.” He tossed over a clean tunic and breeches.  
“What, here?” Merlin said, staring down at them pathetically.  
“Yes, here! What were you planning on doing, crawling through the palace back to your room first?”  
Merlin rolled his eyes and slowly peeled off his wet clothes. Arthur glanced away to give him some privacy, then, out of curiosity, glanced back. He’d undressed in front of Merlin a thousand times, but Merlin had never undressed in front of him. It was… interesting. He was so much smaller than Arthur was, but not delicate or breakable-looking, even though he was shivering and wet.  
“Could you look away, please?” Merlin said, and Arthur realized he’d been staring. Both of their faces were flushed red. He looked pointedly at the opposite wall.  
“Sorry, it’s not my fault you look like… like… a fish.”  
Merlin choked back a laugh. “A fish?”  
“Yes, a fish, because you apparently just went swimming in the rain because you’re an idiot! Are you dressed yet?”  
“Yeah,” Merlin said, and Arthur looked back at him.  
“Thanks for the clothes,” he said. “I f-feel warmer already. Should I go fetch your supper?”  
Arthur looked at Merlin, who was still shivering slightly, and a pang of sympathy ran through him. He knew Merlin hadn’t been collecting herbs for Gaius. Whatever he’d been doing, it was important, and it had probably been something he was doing for Arthur’s sake that Arthur had no idea about, as usual.  
“No,” he said decidedly. “Go sit at the window. You need to warm up.”  
“What?”  
“I said, go sit at the window, you need to warm up.”  
Merlin tilted his head in confusion. “Excuse me, Arthur, are you doing something nice for me?”  
Arthur looked up exasperatedly at the ceiling. “I am your king and it’s not your place to question my decisions, Merlin. Now go sit by the window and that is an order.”  
Merlin, looking endearingly confused as ever, moved to pick up his wet clothes from the floor, and Arthur said, “I’ll get those, just… sit.”  
He went to pick up the pile of wet clothes as Merlin sat down at the window seat. He held them, puzzled, for a few seconds, not sure what one was supposed to do with laundry, until Merlin said, “Why don’t you try hanging them on something to dry?”  
“I know that, Merlin,” Arthur said, and quickly hung them over a few chairs. Merlin, at the window seat, was still shivering, so Arthur ran over and closed the window, dimming the sound of rain to a hazy comforting rhythm.  
“Do you want a blanket?” Arthur asked. “I’m only asking because you look so… cold.”  
“I, uh-”  
“Oh, honestly, Merlin, I’ll just get you a blanket.” He went to his bed and pulled a wool blanket off the end and draped it unceremoniously on top of Merlin, who let out an involuntary sigh of comfort.  
“There. Better, is it?”  
Merlin nodded. He spread the blanket out over himself and curled up on the window seat, and something in Arthur ached, seeing him look so comfortable and happy, like he never got to just relax like this and listen to the rain.  
“Are you really all right with me just sitting here?” Merlin asked.  
“Yes,” Arthur said. “Do you really think I’m so cruel that I want you to just freeze to death?”  
“I mean,” Merlin said. “You certainly act like it sometimes.”  
He grinned, and Arthur looked down at him and laughed. Whatever had been missing from the rainy day before suddenly showed up. He was glad that Merlin had finally come back from whatever he’d been doing outside.  
“What were you doing out in the rain, anyway?” he asked, sitting at the edge of the window seat that wasn’t occupied by Merlin.  
“I told you, collecting herbs for Gaius.”  
“No, you weren’t. Even a complete fool like you doesn’t take all day to collect herbs.”  
“Well, they’re very rare herbs.”  
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Fine, keep your secrets, Merlin.”  
“What, do you think I was at the tavern? Because whatever Gaius told you-”  
“Oh, I thought Gaius sent you to collect herbs?”  
“I- I mean-”  
Arthur laughed. “I know you weren’t at the tavern. Relax. Whatever you were doing, I’m sure it was important.”  
“You have no idea,” Merlin muttered, then leaned back, letting out a small groan as he stretched, and closed his eyes.  
Arthur looked over at him and let himself just listen to the rain again. His headache had entirely disappeared. He liked doing little things to make Merlin feel better. Well, of course, it was horribly undignified for a king to constantly be doing chores for his servant, but he wanted to take care of him. After all Merlin did for him, it was only fair, especially when he was so pathetically cold and shivery like this.  
He got up to go light the fireplace, and Merlin murmured, “Where are you going, Arthur?”  
“To light the fireplace.”  
Merlin’s eyes opened slightly. “Do you even know how to light a fire?”  
“I know perfectly well how to light a fire, Merlin,” Arthur said. “I am the king of Camelot, after all.”  
“Oh, you light fires a lot during council meetings?”  
Arthur looked up at him, smiling sleepily under the blanket, and he shook his head fondly. “You’re lucky good servants are so hard to come by.”  
After a few tries, he got a fire blazing in the fireplace, then said, “I’m getting you some tea, Merlin, don’t argue with me on this.”  
“Mmm,” Merlin muttered, burying himself under the blanket and leaning his head against the window.  
Arthur went to the kitchens, where the cook rushed instantly to prepare him a nice mug of tea, and he thanked her before carefully carrying the hot mug up the stairs to his room. When he opened the door, his shoulders fell and muscles relaxed again. The fire was crackling, the rain was pouring outside, it was warm, and Merlin was fast asleep, his mouth slightly open, which was admittedly adorable. This time Arthur let himself stare, let the thoughts he usually repressed float up to peek at the surface, let himself imagine a life where he woke up every morning next to Merlin, and then he sighed. He didn’t love Merlin like that, of course. This was just him misinterpreting his friendly affection. And if he let himself think about Merlin any other way, all his feelings would start tumbling out into the open, and it would be such an awful mess.  
It didn’t feel like an awful mess. Not here, with the rain singing gently outside. With Merlin, exhausted on the window seat, safe and warm. Arthur set the mug of tea down on the table and walked over to him, and before he could stop himself he kissed Merlin’s forehead gently. Merlin quietly mumbled in his sleep, and affection rushed through Arthur. As carefully as he could, he lifted Merlin up and carried him to his bed, setting him down against the pillow and pulling the sheets over him. It would do him some good to sleep in a real bed, and Arthur could pretend in the morning, pretend even to himself, that he wanted Merlin there because he was simply kind to all his servants.  
He’d thought at first that he would sleep on the window seat, but he couldn’t get comfortable. Eventually he gave in and crawled into bed beside Merlin. It was late now, and the rain was still falling, though gentler now, like a lullaby. He blew out the candle by the edge of his bed and rolled over, staring at Merlin’s face silhouetted in moonlight and the glow of the hearth. In the dark he could let himself forget that he was a king, and Merlin was a servant, and that they were both men and so this didn’t make any sense. In the dark he could just look at him, selfishly lean over to kiss him on the nose, and on the forehead, and then run his hands through his hair, again and again.  
“Arthur?” Merlin whispered.  
Arthur jumped back to his side of the bed.  
Merlin’s eyes blinked open. “Where am I?”  
Arthur cleared his throat and buried his feelings back into his subconscious.  
“You’re in my room,” he said. “I think you should get a good night’s rest here to recover from your swim out in the rain.”  
Merlin glanced around. “In your bed?”  
“Would you rather sleep on the floor?”  
Merlin shrugged and looked up at him, eyes glistening in the moonlight, and smiled.  
“You know, Arthur, you pretend to be such an arrogant clotpole, but you’re really a softie under it all.”  
“Don’t be ridiculous, Merlin. I’m only letting you sleep here so you don’t die of the cold.”  
“Right. But in reality, you hate me.”  
“Yes, I hate you, Merlin. You’re the worst servant a king could ever ask for.”  
“Well, you’re the worst king a servant could ever ask for, so I suppose we’re evenly matched.”  
They stared at each other for a moment, grinning, then burst into laughter, the rain streaming outside over them. Arthur collapsed against the bed laughing, and Merlin rolled over closer to him, and then they were pressed against each other staring into each other’s eyes, and Arthur kissed him.  
All he could hear was the rain.  
“Arthur,” Merlin breathed, when they pulled apart a few moments later.  
“Sorry,” Arthur said. “I’m sorry- it was just-”  
“Don’t be sorry,” Merlin said, and pulled him back again into another kiss, and Arthur couldn’t breathe. He had barely even dreamed of this.  
“I’m not cold anymore,” Merlin murmured against him.  
“I’ll let you stay here anyway,” Arthur said, unable to restrain his smile.


End file.
